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Epilepsy drugs may extend life

By Andy Coghlan

DRUGS used since the 1950s to prevent epileptic seizures can act as an elixir of youth – at least for worms.

When given standard anticonvulsants, nematode worms lived up to 50 per cent longer than normal. “That’s pretty dramatic,” says Kerry Kornfeld at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, head of the team that made the discovery. If the drugs have the same effect on humans, it would mean people living to the ripe old age of 150 or more.

Of the three anticonvulsants tested, trimethadione worked best, extending worm life by 47 per cent …